quote:

The following appears courtesy of the 11/20/97 online edition of The London
Daily Telegraph newspaper:

Man who blinded and drowned lover jailed for life
By Nigel Bunyan

A MAN who blinded his teenage girlfriend and then drowned her in a bath was
jailed for life yesterday.

Peter Smith, 49, tortured Kelly-Anne Bates, 17, for up to four weeks before her
death. She had 150 injuries, having been stabbed with knives and scissors,
burnt, scalded, partially scalped and starved.

An iron had been applied to her thigh "like a brand". A post-mortem examination
found an untreated fracture in her left arm and crushing injuries to both
hands.

Police found the teenager's naked body in the bedroom of Smith's semi-detached
home in Gorton, Greater Manchester. Smith, who has a long history of violence
against women, smiled as the jury at Manchester Crown Court returned their
verdict after a seven-day trial.

Mr Justice Sachs told him: "You have been convicted in short order, and rightly
so, of murdering this woman. This has been a terrible case: a catalogue of
depravity by one human being upon another. You are a highly dangerous person.
You are an abuser of women. I intend, so far as is in my power to ensure, that
you shall abuse no more."

The court heard how Miss Bates's plight emerged after Smith walked into a
police station on April 16. He told officers she had died accidentally during
an argument in the bathroom, but they found blood stains in almost every room.

The girl had been kept prisoner in rooms without carpets and with little
furniture. Sometimes she had been tied by her hair to a radiator or a chair.
Smith, unemployed, blinded her at least a week and possibly three weeks before
her death. She had also been stabbed in the eye sockets in the three days
before her death.

Peter Openshaw, QC, prosecuting, said her physical pain would have been so
intense as to cause "anguish and torment to the point of mental breakdown and
collapse".

Many injuries had been intended as deliberate disfigurement. Lack of
nourishment had emaciated a strong and sporty girl, who finally weighed
seven-and a half stones.

Miss Bates, who had wanted to be a teacher, was at college in Hyde, Greater
Manchester, and worked for a graphics firm in nearby Audenshaw. She first went
out with Smith when she was 14. Initially, she kept the relationship secret,
fearing disapproval by her parents, Margaret and Thomas.

She eventually moved in with Smith. They briefly split up, but she returned to
the house in Furnival Road in November 1995. Her family became concerned. They
noticed bruises and a bite mark, which she passed off as an accident. Last
Christmas, she gave up her job and her mother noticed a strange manner during
telephone conversations.

In March, Miss Bates failed to sign cards for her parents' wedding anniversary
and for her father's birthday. A few days before her body was found, Smith told
a friend that "his girlfriend and her lying were making him mad and said he
could understand how a man could kill a woman".

Smith, a Jehovah's Witness, was described in court as houseproud and
well-groomed. He would sometimes bathe two or three times a day and abhorred
smoking and drinking. In police interviews he admitted inflicting injuries, but
said he did so in retaliation for Miss Bates taunting him about his dead
mother.

Smith's ex-wife, Janice Anderson, 45, told the court how their 10-year marriage
ended in 1980 because of his jealousy and violence.

Other women who befriended Smith gave similar accounts of his violent nature.
Tina Marsden, who was 20 when she met him in 1980, said: "At first it was now
and again; just a little tap. But in the end it was every day.

"He would smack me in the face or hit me over the head with an ashtray. He
would kick me in the legs or between the legs. He used me as a punchbag." Once,
he had seized her by the throat, forcing her under water as she lay in the
bath.

Dr Gillian Metzey, a consultant psychiatrist, said Smith lived in a "distorted
reality". He had a severe paranoid disorder with morbid jealousy. After the
verdict, Miss Bates's mother said she had been concerned about Smith's
malevolent nature and had watched helplessly as her daughter became submissive.

She said: "Kelly wasn't the same girl when she was with him, and he was
obviously scared of us persuading her to leave him. I was asking everybody what
I should do, but nobody could help. We did everything within the law to try to
stop her seeing him. If I'd broken the law I would still have her now."

quote: (post)

Originally posted by Oliver North
In Canada, we have something called "dangerous offender" status, which, iirc, means you will never get out of prison pending some near miraculous change and psych evaluation. This guy seems like he should qualify for that.

Hopefully I'm not inferring to much if I suspect the OP is in favor of the death penalty here? either way, I wouldn't support that.

quote: (post)

Originally posted by Ascendancy
Definitely a case where that needs to be applied. I see nothing that shows he has any chance of rehabilitation, and as such he needs to remain incarcerated for good.

quote: (post)

Originally posted by dadudemon
Her last name is bates. Shame she died to this weirdo.

quote: (post)

Originally posted by Oliver North
Hopefully I'm not inferring to much if I suspect the OP is in favor of the death penalty here? either way, I wouldn't support that.

quote: (post)

Originally posted by TheGodKiller
Quite an old murder case, but the sheer brutality of its nature merits discussion:

Do you guys think that a 20 year life sentence was enough?

quote: (post)

Originally posted by TheGodKiller
Thanks for adding this insightful new info to the thread topic. Now tell us what you think of the sentence levied upon this fellow, and whether it was strict enough or not.

No, you're not inferring too much. I'd like to hear your thoughts on why you wouldn't support a punishment like that.

quote: (post)

Originally posted by TheGodKiller
No, you're not inferring too much. I'd like to hear your thoughts on why you wouldn't support a punishment like that.

quote: (post)

Originally posted by Dolos
stockholm syndrome

quote: (post)

Originally posted by Oliver North
that would not be stockholm syndrome

quote: (post)

Originally posted by Dolos
Isn't stockholm syndrome the result of an abused individual who acquires empathy for their captors (cell mates), mistaking relent for acts of benevolence?

Or are those just non-defining elements of it?

quote: (post)

Originally posted by Dolos
Isn't stockholm syndrome the result of an abused individual who acquires empathy for their captors (cell mates), mistaking relent for acts of benevolence?

Or are those just non-defining elements of it?